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ILLUSTRATION BY OSCAR HERNANDEZ, 9, WASHINGTON
Soaring back to life
O
n a clear, cool fall morning, a bald eagle swoops in from its perch on a cliff overlooking Trinity Lake in Northern Cali-
fornia. With grace and speed, the eagle flies low over the water and snatches a bass any fisherman would be happy to catch. Chased by three crows, the eagle settles atop a tree, high on the cliff overlooking the water. This beautiful scene is the result of an amazing comeback story. The ma- jestic bald eagle was adopted as a na- tional symbol in 1782, when there were 100,000 eagles in this country. But 40 years ago, the species had plummeted to near extinction, with just 417 nest- ing pairs of the birds known in the United States. After decades of conservation work and successful protection efforts, there are nearly 10,000 nesting pairs nationwide and the birds have been re- moved from the threatened and en- dangered species list. If you’re lucky, you can sometimes spot a bald eagle around the Chesapeake Bay and local waterways — sometimes even in the city. Hunting and loss of habitat were blamed for a decline in the number of bald eagles in the early part of the 20th century, and the federal government responded by creating the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940. The possession, selling and killing of eagles were pro- hibited, but the population continued to decline into the 1960s. Researchers figured out that a com- monly used pesticide, called DDT, was a big part of the problem. Chemical runoff contaminated the fish eaten by the eagles, and the chemicals weak- ened the eagles’ eggshells. Many eggs were damaged before the young could hatch. That’s when a serious effort began to save the bald eagle. The Environ-
Size: Adults can weigh 14 pounds and stand 3 feet tall, with a wing- span of 6 to 8 feet.
Diet: Mostly fish, also waterfowl, turtles, rabbits, snakes, mice and dead animals.
Life span: Up to 30 years in the wild, far longer in captivity.
Flying: Can fly to an altitude of 10,000 feet, reach speeds of 35 miles per hour and lift up to 4 pounds.
Best place to find one: Mason Neck State Park, Fairfax; Blackwater Na- tional Wildlife Refuge, Cambridge,
Maryland; the National Zoo; occa- sionally along the Potomac River throughout the area. You can see an eagle (as well as hawks and owls) get fed during a free program at Mead- owside Nature Center in Rockville on April 17 at noon.
Fun fact: A pair of bald eagles mate for life.
mental Protection Agency banned DDT in 1972, and under the Endan- gered Species Act, it became a crime to disturb the roosting, feeding and nest- ing sites of a bald eagle. The other major effort that has brought the eagle back is the reintro- duction of the bird to states where it had disappeared. Over 22 years, 103 eagle chicks were hatched and re- leased through a breeding program. After such a dramatic swing in
population, though, no one is taking the eagle population for granted. Wild- life officials will monitor the eagles’ numbers for up to 20 years to see if at any point the bird needs to be put back on the endangered list.
—Staff and wire reports
Thanks to decades of conservation efforts, bald eagles have made a comeback
Bald eagles at a glance
TODAY’S NEWS
ROGER BENSON/UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE VIA REUTERS
A Tyrannosaur hip bone was found in Australia.
Fossil makes experts
BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
There were once only 417 bald eagle nesting pairs in the country. Now, with nearly 10,000 pairs, the bird is no longer on the threatened and endangered animals list.
FRAZZ
JEF MALLETT
rethink key theory
Scientists have discovered evidence that the most fear- some of all dinosaurs may have roamed Australia. The discovery of a Tyranno- saur bone has experts rethink- ing their theory that the carniv- orous predators were not found on southern continents. Researchers found a hip bone that they identified as be- longing to a Tyrannosaur that lived about 110 million years ago. This dinosaur is believed to be an ancestor of Tyranno- saurus rex, which lived about 70 million years ago. In reconstructing the dino- saur from the foot-long bone, researchers say that it probably came from an animal that was about 10 feet long and weighed about 180 pounds. By compari- son, the T. rex of “Jurassic Park” fame grew to be about 40 feet long and weighed about 8,000 pounds.
Despite the differences in size, scientists have no doubt that the Australian find is relat- ed to T. rex because it is so char- acteristic of tyrannosaur bones: It looks like a boot at one end and flattened at the other, where it connects to the hip.
R
KLMNO
TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010
ENTER FOR YOUR CHANCE TO
WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO
WPAS’s 2010-11 season is filled with Russian orchestras and stars
by Anne Midgette
This month, the Kennedy Cen-
Tuesday, April 13, 7:30 p.m. The National Theatre
We’re giving away six pairs of tickets to the opening night performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” at the National Theatre. Enter today for your chance to be one of the winners.
Plus, one lucky Grand Prize winner will also receive dinner for two at a D.C. area restaurant and a $250 gift card too!
To enter, go to washingtonpost.com/postfun by April 4th.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Sweepstakes is sponsored by WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post and Stevens Advertising (collectively, “Sponsor”). Contest is open to those who are 18 years of age or older and live in Washington, DC, Maryland, or Virginia at the time of entry and receipt of any prize. Average retail value of grand prize is: $540.00. Average retail value of a pair of tickets is: $140.00. Void where prohibited by law. Entry period begins on 3/22/2010 at 12:00 am Eastern Time (“ET”) & ends on 4/4/2010 at 11:59 p.m. ET (“Entry Period”). To enter and for complete sweepstakes rules, log on to www.washingtonpost.com/postfun.
A159 3x10.5
ter culminated a 10-year relation- ship with the Mariinsky Orchestra with a week-plus residency. In Oc- tober — the Mariinsky is back. The Washington Performing Arts Soci- ety’s 2010-11 classical music sea- son, announced Monday, will open with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky performing another mammoth work at the Kennedy Center: Mahler’s Eighth Sympho- ny. After the intense Mariinsky ex- posure here this month, Kennedy Center regulars may not realize they’ve ever been away. More exciting is the arrival of another Russian orchestra in April: Yuri Temirkanov will lead the St. Petersburg Philharmonic at Strathmore. The 2010-11 season (tickets go on sale Friday) has an unusually high complement of name-brand stars. Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-SophieMut- ter, Joshua Bell (returning for the third consecutive year), Renée Fleming, Evgeny Kissin and Itzhak Perlman will all give recitals, as will Emanuel Ax, Maurizio Pollini and Hilary Hahn. And James Lev- ine will bring his Boston Sympho- ny Orchestra to the Kennedy Cen- ter — assuming he is by then free of the health issues that have forced him to cancel so many per- formances this season. “It’s basically a who’s who of classical music,” said WPAS’s presi- dent, Neale Perl, adding, “It’s a huge season for us.” The season will also be marked by co-productions with other Washington institutions, such as the Vocal Arts Society, which teams up with WPAS to present the mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDona- to in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, not a typical venue for a vocal concert recital. The event cel- ebrates the Vocal Arts Society’s 20th anniversary. The Choral Arts Society will appear in Mahler’s Eighth (which it recorded with Gergiev, and which it will go on to sing at Carnegie Hall) and partici- pate in a “What Makes It Great” presentation of the Mozart Requi- em. Young Concert Artists will co- present a recital by the violinist Caroline Goulding.
MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST
ANDREW ECCLES
STEVEN SENNE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
JASON DECROW/ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARCO BORGGREVE
2010-11 PERFORMERS:Clockwise from top left, Renée Fleming, Yuri Temirkanov, Yo-Yo Ma, ValeryGergiev and Joshua Bell.
As usual, the series is strong on pianists: Other recitalists include Simone Dinnerstein, Marc-André Hamelin and Pierre-Laurent Ai- mard. The Dresden Staatskapelle will appear under one-time wun- derkind Daniel Harding; Japan’s NHK orchestra will play Elgar’s cello concerto with Daniel Müller- Schott. It’s not clear that the season will
shake the perception that touring orchestras often present more
conservative fare in Washington and save the edgier stuff for Carne- gie Hall. Levine, for instance, will conduct Mozart and Schumann rather than some of the living Americans he loves. Asked about this, Perl cited a quote from WyntonMarsalis, once accused of being too conservative in his programming for Jazz at Lincoln Center. “They’re called masterpieces for a reason,” he said.
midgettea@washpost.com
Have you ever seen a bald eagle flying free or in the zoo? Tell us by voting in our poll at www.kidspost.com.
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